Earlier I added to another post my girl was obviously in labour. I thought i would have pups by night time. Well no pups yet. She is going between panting and sleeping and wanting to be out with the other dogs. I am trying to let her do what she wants within reason. So she started to show signs of starting about 9.30 this morning but no other obvious signs yet. She seems to be really tight although she has had a litter before. I have seen puppy movements from time to time but what a worrying time as always. My OH is quite chilled, reminding me that we have had them go 48 hours like this before the arrival of a puppy but it never gets any easier to watch and go through does it.

good luck. I hope it goes well for you

Starting to get the usual anxiety as no puppies have arrived and it is 04.51. There has been no heavy pushing. Restlessness, sleeping and a little bit of digging andlots of trips out for a wee and occasinally a small amount of loose feaces.
Not following the pattern of her previous litter. I gave her some nutridrops but not sure how often you can give them.

My girl took a lomg time to get going well over 24 hours before we had serious contractions. But once she started (just afterb I called the vet in the middle of the night) she had them fairly quickly. If you are at all  worried suggest calling the vet even for a chatr. Not worth taking the risk that  something could be wrong.

Well at no point has she seemed distressed she is having a long peaceful sleep again now so hopefully she will follow similar pattern to your bitch. Awful isn't it. You feel like you have come such  a long way with them and now want to know it is finally successful.
Do you know how often she can be given nutridrops. I gave her some last night but did not know if you could over do it.

I have not used Nutridrops. I meant to get some for my girl but forgot to order them. I think they are just a high energy food supplement so if that is the case i wouldn't think there is an actual dose to exceed. I would say if she is sleeping peacefully at the moment then she is still in the first stage which according to my vet can last over 24 hours. But obviously I am not a vet, just an owner who has been through this recently. It is easy to work yourself up into a state of panic in the middle of the night. I know I did. 

I give nutridrops and calcium supplement every hour once labour is established as directed by my mentors.

My one bitch would be in first stage for over 18hrs and then take her time giving birth to 3/4 pups, wasn't distressed so we went with the flow.

>She seems to be really tight

What do you mean by tight?

Just time to let you know that I took Heather to be checked over by the vet this am. He had a good feel cervix was open and he suggested Oxytocin. Before you knew it she was delivering a puppy. He was very large, head first, out of bag but OK. We had that puppy there and brought her home. She had another large puppy and one half the size of them bitch puppy. They seem to be feeding OK and looks like another may be on its way. I'll let you know what happens byt the finish. We saw 3 on the vet scan but the private scanner thought more.

Sorry earlier on I meant she was like a drum. I would not do what my vet did but it drove her crazy, she was jumping around at his place and the first puppy was on its way almost immediately.

We now have 3 boys and the tiniest little girl, She is straining again now.

Thanks for the update, Congrats on the pups so far.

Are you giving her regular nutridrops to keep her strength up?

I have - she is not keen and acting like I am poisening her!!! She has had a bit of food and some milk too
I don't yet know whether she has finished but I have 4 boys and the 1 girl. If it stays at that I will have a few to disappoint and have got to go through my list to pick out who will have a puppy. I was planning to keep a bitch myself but with just one I might not.
Still, the main think is that Heather seems OK and happy with the pups and all the pups seem to be doing well.
I used an aspirator for the first time in this litter after watching a youtube video and talking to my vet. I used it on a couple of pups and it worked a treat.

Well done!  You're right, it is such a stressful time :-)

Although now you just have 5 little lives to worry about as well lol.

OK It is all finished now with 7. Went to the vet as I thought she had completely finished and to be sure he did an x-ray and saw 2 more puppies. We did not know whether they were dead or alive so I prepared for the worst. Vet gave Oxytocin. Came home and gave birth to another mouse like girl, It  was quite a while later when she pushed out another large dog puppy. So 2 & 5. The boys are all very large and the 2 girls are unbelievably tiny - like mice. What happened there then?
She is now settled feeding them. I'll just have to keep a careful eye on the little ones. What a relief.

Congratulations, glad it is all over, sure the little ones will catch up with their big brothers.

Well I can't believe this myself. Thought she was paying particular attention to one puppy until I had a count and found she was number 8. What a couple of days.
It was nice to have the feeling of support from this forum while I whiled away some hours waiting. Thanks

Thanks for the final count, does that mean there are 3 girls or was the extra one a boy?

Strange that only one sex has been tiny. What is the weight difference?

wow. how was no 3 not seen on the xray? congratulations anyway. pleased it has all gone relatively well.

Hi 3 Girls and 5 boys. The 3rd girl was a normal size. The difference in the tiny ones is very obvious to look at and in weight about 150-200 grams. I suspect they missed the little girl because she is so tiny. I asked him that but I got the impression that he though this unlikely. I'll be lettig them know this morning.
Mind you I am thinking if sending my practice a bunch of flowers this time because for some reaon I had been really jittery this time and they have put up with me over the last couple of weeks and been really reasonable with their charges.  couldn't have been in better hands.

Congratulations :)

>  couldn't have been in better hands

Now that is what I love to hear.  :-)  :-)  :-)

It's great when you have a vet that you can rely on.  I know that I was a total pain when I had to have a tail amputation a couple of months ago.  I was very worried, and upset that I'd had to make the decision.  But they didn't even charge me for the out of hours visit, and didn't make me feel a total neurotic!

I hear so many stories as a dog groomer of extortionate prices, at the end of it all I trust my vet and think they are in the main comparatively reasonable. I often wonder what I would do if he decided to retire or move away. Takes soome years to build up a trust and relationship.

Congratulations Hazenaide to the puppies!!! Hope the small ones make it. Make sure they get to the teats with most milk and that they have it warm and cosy.

Sad to report that the smallest girl, the one that was missed on the xray has died. We tried everything. I thought we had turned the corner as she started to suckle again and then just refused. The others have all raced away so fingers x'd will be OK. She just did not put on any weight at all. Tried the bottle away from her stronger litter mates. Tried putting her on Mum when the others had tired but in the night she started breathing funny. Vet tried glucose treatment but I knew it was too late. Of course the pups were all spoken for and the buyers do not yet know. We had kept an option on a bitch ourselves but thinking now there are only 2, we may not this time.
All seems such a waste and to be honest I think it was upsetting Mum as we were desperately trying to get her to latch on. I have had Heather to the vet too this morning as I thought she was a bit unhappy and they think she has a slight infection so on antibiotics. Hopefully she will relax with them again now.

Ah, sorry about the smallest one. You did all you could - sometimes these things just aren't meant to be. All the best with the rest, and don't make your minds up about keeping one or not just yet. You may feel differently later on. At the end of the day, they are your pups and it must be your choice.

Sorry that one didn't make it, may she RIP.

It is too early to decide re keeping one, you have had all the heartache and hard work so you deserve to have something at the end, puppy buyers must realise that some pups may not make it and you shouldn't give up your choice to keep them all happy.

Is Mum getting plenty of calcium as being "not quite right" can be the early signs of eclampsia

During the first couple of days she wasn't interested in food particularly which is out of charachter for her but I could get her to dtink puppy milk and she would take anything different that was offered so that was OK I tried anything she would take fish for example. She just isn't quite ready yet for anything mundane. The vet said her temperature was only slightly up which is why she put her on antibiotics so hopefully this will clear any potential infection.
After we lost the puppy I think she is settling a little as of course we are not there trying to get her to feed so it must be better for her. We can now concentrate on, hopefully, seeing the rest of the litter progress.

Good luck with your litter :)